Twice is nice

For the first time in YEC’s his­to­ry, we were able to return $1.5 mil­lion dol­lars back to our mem­bers through cap­i­tal cred­its in May of 2019. While this mile­stone shows your coop­er­a­tive is in tip-top finan­cial shape, it also means there’s more mon­ey back in your pock­et.

YEC is proud to have locals look­ing out for you, climb­ing to new heights to serve you with bet­ter tech­nol­o­gy, com­mu­ni­ca­tion, reli­a­bil­i­ty, and integri­ty. Pho­to Cred­it: Porter Gable

After review­ing our mar­gins for the remain­der of this year, your Board of Direc­tors made the deci­sion to retire anoth­er $1.5 mil­lion dol­lars to you THIS YEAR. That’s right–YEC will return cap­i­tal cred­its for a sec­ond time back to our mem­bers in 2019. Checks should hit mail­box­es around the first week in Decem­ber, just in time for Christ­mas.

As a reminder, cap­i­tal cred­its are based on your co-op’s year­ly mar­gins which means invest­ments in your coop­er­a­tive’s future, growth and finan­cial health are eval­u­at­ed each year before deter­min­ing the amount we can return to you. Rest assured our Board of Direc­tors takes this mat­ter seri­ous­ly and always has your best inter­est at heart. For exam­ple, we are proud to have the low­est pub­lished elec­tric rates in South Car­oli­na and haven’t raised rates in nine years and don’t antic­i­pate any increase for 2020. As a mem­ber, you own a piece of the co-op pie and are returned a por­tion of the prof­its based on your ener­gy use and years of mem­ber­ship. In May, we returned mon­ey back to YEC mem­bers who received ser­vice from York Elec­tric dur­ing the years 1996, 1997 and 2017. The sec­ond 2019 retire­ment will be for mem­bers who received ser­vice in 1997 and 2017. If your refund is less than $15, the amount will be print­ed as a line item cred­it on your util­i­ty bill.

Return­ing cap­i­tal cred­its is just anoth­er way YEC is always look­ing out for you. To see more ways your co-op is invest­ing in our great­est asset, our mem­bers, look at our year-end mem­ber com­fort recap, our schol­ar­ship oppor­tu­ni­ties, and the win­ners of our first Bright Ideas Grant pro­gram and more local news in this issue.

Thank you for mak­ing 2019 one of our best years yet. Here’s wish­ing you and your fam­i­ly a Hap­py Thanks­giv­ing and a Mer­ry Christ­mas.

Paul Basha, CEO, York Electric Cooperative

Paul Basha

Paul Basha
Pres­i­dent and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer


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Capital Credits FAQ

You should receive an allo­ca­tion notice each year after a finan­cial audit of York Elec­tric has been com­plet­ed. Dur­ing the month of May, mem­bers receive Cap­i­tal Cred­it checks in the mail unless the amount due to them is less than $15. If the mem­ber’s refund is less than $15, the amount will be dis­trib­uted and print­ed on their util­i­ty billing state­ment as a line item cred­it.

Cat­e­go­ry: Cap­i­tal Cred­its FAQ

Cap­i­tal Cred­its are cal­cu­lat­ed by York Elec­tric for every mem­ber who pur­chased elec­tric­i­ty dur­ing a year in which the util­i­ty earned mar­gins. No spe­cial action is required to start a Cap­i­tal Cred­it account. Your mem­ber­ship with York Elec­tric acti­vates your Cap­i­tal Cred­it account.

Cat­e­go­ry: Cap­i­tal Cred­its FAQ

The amount of Cap­i­tal Cred­its you earn in a giv­en year is based upon the amount of elec­tric­i­ty pur­chased. Each mem­ber receives a cred­it based on a per­cent­age for each dol­lar of elec­tric­i­ty pur­chased.

Cat­e­go­ry: Cap­i­tal Cred­its FAQ

Not nec­es­sar­i­ly. The board of trustees must autho­rize a refund before you receive a check. When con­sid­er­ing a refund, the board ana­lyzes the finan­cial sta­tus of the coop­er­a­tive and will not autho­rize a refund if it is not in the best inter­est of the mem­ber­ship.

Cat­e­go­ry: Cap­i­tal Cred­its FAQ

No. Allo­cat­ed Cap­i­tal Cred­its may not be used to pay cur­rent bills. While your elec­tric bill is due month­ly, you will not be enti­tled to your Cap­i­tal Cred­its until the board of trustees autho­rizes a refund. This will take place over many years, since York Elec­tric needs the funds to grow.

Cat­e­go­ry: Cap­i­tal Cred­its FAQ

The rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the estate can have the bal­ance of Cap­i­tal Cred­its trans­ferred into the heir’s name and the bal­ance will be paid out as the board of trustees approves refunds.

Cat­e­go­ry: Cap­i­tal Cred­its FAQ

Your Cap­i­tal Cred­its remain in your name and mem­ber num­ber until they are retired. You just need to ensure that York Elec­tric has your cur­rent mail­ing address.

Cat­e­go­ry: Cap­i­tal Cred­its FAQ

Cap­i­tal Cred­its are a ben­e­fit of mem­ber­ship in a mem­ber-owned util­i­ty. Each year, YEC uses the rev­enues that exceed oper­at­ing costs as equi­ty. These funds and bor­rowed cap­i­tal allow YEC to serve a grow­ing num­ber of mem­bers while imple­ment­ing the lat­est tech­nol­o­gy to pro­vide the best pos­si­ble ser­vice. As a not-for-prof­it util­i­ty, YEC lat­er returns these rev­enues to the mem­bers who orig­i­nal­ly paid them in their elec­tric bills.

Each year, our mem­bers receive Cap­i­tal Cred­it checks. Mem­bers will receive Cap­i­tal Cred­it checks in the mail unless the amount due to them is less than $15. If the mem­ber’s refund is less than $15, the amount will be dis­trib­uted and print­ed on their util­i­ty billing state­ment as a line item cred­it. The amount of Cap­i­tal Cred­its returned is deter­mined by total rev­enues received over expens­es for the coop­er­a­tive and your total ener­gy billings for the year. They are paid peri­od­i­cal­ly with board approval after review of YEC’s finan­cial sta­tus.

If you leave YEC’s ser­vice area, your Cap­i­tal Cred­its remain in your name and mem­ber num­ber until they are retired. There­fore, you need to make sure YEC has your cur­rent mail­ing address.

Cat­e­go­ry: Cap­i­tal Cred­its FAQ

York Elec­tric is a coop­er­a­tive. A coop­er­a­tive is owned by its mem­bers and does not tech­ni­cal­ly earn prof­its. Instead, any rev­enues over the cost of doing busi­ness are con­sid­ered “mar­gins.” These mar­gins rep­re­sent an inter­est-free loan of oper­at­ing cap­i­tal by the mem­ber­ship of the coop­er­a­tive. This cap­i­tal allows York Elec­tric to finance oper­a­tions and, to a cer­tain extent, con­struc­tion. The util­i­ty then returns this cap­i­tal to the mem­bers in lat­er years.

Cat­e­go­ry: Cap­i­tal Cred­its FAQ